A few years ago, for The Beatles 50th Anniversary of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band …. Everybody is jumping on the bandwagon to pay homage or do a parody of the most famous cover artwork in rock n roll. I, Michael McCarty would not stoop that low, just to get a sale of one of my books…

Okay, actually I did… several years ago with my short story collection:

A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FIENDS
By Michael McCarty

Published by Wildside Press

My very good friend and frequent collaborator Mark McLaughlin did an excellent job reproducing The Fab Four as Monsters: Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, Wolfman and Dracula and the fifth member … me.
(The skeletons in the background Mr. Bones & Mrs. Bones are also on the cover of DARK DUETS, which Mark also did the cover for)

:

A Little Help From My Fiends by Michael McCarty

The short story collection is one of my favorites too. There are two Beatle themed stories in the book: “When We Was Flab” (co-written with Mark McLaughlin) and “Sgt. Pager & The Killer Robot Band” (co-written with my wife, Cindy McCarty).

The story “The Substitute” inspired THE BLOODLESS series (that trilogy of novels, co-written with Jody R. LaGreca).

There are 20 stories in A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FIENDS and all of them are excellent, written when I was at the top of my game writing shorter fiction.

When the book first came out, Fangoria website, did an online interview with me and the sales soared. Thank you Fangoria.

I even received this nice review:

“Michael McCarty’s ‘A Little Help from My Fiends’ truly shines. His collection of short stories is a lovingly created, watered with blood and harvested at the peak of ripeness kind of work. The approach to the collection is so fresh that — were it a steak — you would note still a bit of warmth and even a faint pulse. You see, each story in this collection is co-authored with another excellent storyteller. Mark McLaughlin, Terrie Leigh Relf and Dave Miller, to name a few, make appearances. Each short story is prefaced with a few words that identify the co-author, point to an interesting tidbit of the tale’s creation, and never fail to show McCarty lauding the co-author while remaining modestly in the background.” — Sylvia Cochran